>
> I haven't heard the the R2 beta program is closed. Have you tried to resolve your
> issues by testing R2?

> One view could be: If you have made a commitment to this product, why did
> you then not buy SA with these licences?
>
> It is the first version of this product, so I expect the improvements in the
> next versions to be big enough that I definatly want them, so for me there
> was no doubt that I wanted SA on Virtual Server.

>I am interested to see how many things R2 does better; especially
>performance.
>
> However, since June of this year we've purchased 11 copies of VS 2005,
> representing thousands of dollars- and many hours of labor- invested in
> this
> product.

> I've posed about both these topics before, but in hopes that someone has found
> a solution, I'll post again.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Complaint 1 - NIC dropouts during large file transfers.
>
> Typical scenario is the network connection drops after 300-500 MB transferred,
> sometimes more, sometimes less. The connection does not stay down, it just
> drops out long enough to screw up the file transfer. Per instructions,
> "Offload TCP Segmentation" has been disabled on the host.
>
> ** This happens on every virtual server we have, so it is not an isolated
> case.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Complaint 2 - The first time "Run virtual machine under the following user
> account" information is set, it disappears when Virtual Server service is
> restarted.
>
> Enter the information the first time, save it, then either manually restart
> the service or reboot the host machine. Return to the VM config and we see
> the username/password for that VM have disappeared. Enter them again, and
> they persist.
>
> Please note, very important-- If we enter them the first time, save, do other
> tasks, then return to the "Run virtual machine under the following user
> account" screen-- our settings are still there. It's ONLY when the VS service
> is stop/started does the info drop out. But once it is re-entered after it is
> lost the first time, it persists thereafter.
>
> This happens EVERY time we create a new VM and enter "Run virtual machine
> under the following user account", without exception.
>
> ** This happens on every virtual server we have, so it is not an isolated
> case.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> I've posed about both these topics before, but in hopes that someone has found
> a solution, I'll post again.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Complaint 1 - NIC dropouts during large file transfers.
>
> Typical scenario is the network connection drops after 300-500 MB transferred,
> sometimes more, sometimes less. The connection does not stay down, it just
> drops out long enough to screw up the file transfer. Per instructions,
> "Offload TCP Segmentation" has been disabled on the host.
>
> ** This happens on every virtual server we have, so it is not an isolated
> case.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Complaint 2 - The first time "Run virtual machine under the following user
> account" information is set, it disappears when Virtual Server service is
> restarted.
>
> Enter the information the first time, save it, then either manually restart
> the service or reboot the host machine. Return to the VM config and we see
> the username/password for that VM have disappeared. Enter them again, and
> they persist.
>
> Please note, very important-- If we enter them the first time, save, do other
> tasks, then return to the "Run virtual machine under the following user
> account" screen-- our settings are still there. It's ONLY when the VS service
> is stop/started does the info drop out. But once it is re-entered after it is
> lost the first time, it persists thereafter.
>
> This happens EVERY time we create a new VM and enter "Run virtual machine
> under the following user account", without exception.
>
> ** This happens on every virtual server we have, so it is not an isolated
> case.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>

> I've posed about both these topics before, but in hopes that someone has
> found
> a solution, I'll post again.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Complaint 1 - NIC dropouts during large file transfers.
>
> Typical scenario is the network connection drops after 300-500 MB
> transferred,
> sometimes more, sometimes less. The connection does not stay down, it
> just
> drops out long enough to screw up the file transfer. Per instructions,
> "Offload TCP Segmentation" has been disabled on the host.
>
> ** This happens on every virtual server we have, so it is not an isolated
> case.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Complaint 2 - The first time "Run virtual machine under the following user
> account" information is set, it disappears when Virtual Server service is
> restarted.
>
> Enter the information the first time, save it, then either manually
> restart
> the service or reboot the host machine. Return to the VM config and we
> see
> the username/password for that VM have disappeared. Enter them again, and
> they persist.
>
> Please note, very important-- If we enter them the first time, save, do
> other
> tasks, then return to the "Run virtual machine under the following user
> account" screen-- our settings are still there. It's ONLY when the VS
> service
> is stop/started does the info drop out. But once it is re-entered after
> it is
> lost the first time, it persists thereafter.
>
> This happens EVERY time we create a new VM and enter "Run virtual machine
> under the following user account", without exception.
>
> ** This happens on every virtual server we have, so it is not an isolated
> case.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> "Ben Armstrong [MSFT]" wrote:
>
>>RE: Network drops - do all of your servers have the same networking
>>hardware? If so - what is it?
>
>
> Yes, all servers running VS 2005 are the Intel SR1325TP1-E chassis
>
> http://www.intel.com/design/servers/boards/downloads/253647.pdf
>
> which are based on the SE7210TP1-E motherboards which have the Intel PRO/100
> and PRO/1000 onboard NICs
>
> http://www.intel.com/design/servers/boards/se7210tp1-e/

>
> Hi Jay,
>
> Where does networking drop out:
> (A) on the host, or
> (B) within the guest
>

>
> RE: Network drops - do all of your servers have the same networking
> hardware? If so - what is it?

>
> I too had file transfer problems between a shared folder on the host and the
> guest o/s.
> I then dedicated one LAN to the host computer (by removing VS from it.)
> And, dedicated one LAN to the virtual machines by removing everything but VS.
> (Read this in the help file regarding improving performance.)

> "Ben Armstrong [MSFT]" wrote:
>
>>RE: Auto-start - I would recommend that you contact Microsoft Product
>>Support about this.
>
>
> DOH!!! I was hoping you wouldn't say that. I hate spending money for a brand
> new piece of software (in this case, many copies of it) then having to also
> pay for support when that new product doesn't work as expected.

>
> RE: Auto-start - I would recommend that you contact Microsoft Product
> Support about this.

> Joe from WI wrote:
>>
>> I too had file transfer problems between a shared folder on the host and
>> the
>> guest o/s.
>
> Except that our problem is between the guest and nodes across the network.
> Transfers between the host and guests never fail.
>
>
>> I then dedicated one LAN to the host computer (by removing VS from it.)
>> And, dedicated one LAN to the virtual machines by removing everything but
>> VS.
>> (Read this in the help file regarding improving performance.)
>
> I wish we had that luxury, but we don't. Our server platform has 2 NICs;
> one
> is used for public traffic and the other is used for private (backups,
> monitoring, maintenance, control) traffic. We don't have a 3rd NIC
> available
> to dedicate to the VM.

>
> I have the same problem with every Linux guest we run on our R2 host. I
> "solved" it by keeping an SSH session open to each guest from a remote host.
> After doing that, there are no dropped connections.
>
> I'm almost sure this is a problem with ARP somewhere. I can tell because
> when I go to ping a guest from a remote system, I get name resolution
> immediately, but it takes several seconds to get the first ping reply. I'm
> pretty positive something in the MAC layer of VS does NOT work very well.
> It's not persistent enough for sustained usage. It's like I can force the
> ARP to remain in the hosts cache by maintaining an open TCP session...but
> that's a lame work around.
>
> "JayDubb" <(email address - cut out)> wrote in message
> news:(email address - cut out)...
> > Joe from WI wrote:
> >>
> >> I too had file transfer problems between a shared folder on the host and
> >> the
> >> guest o/s.
> >
> > Except that our problem is between the guest and nodes across the network.
> > Transfers between the host and guests never fail.
> >
> >
> >> I then dedicated one LAN to the host computer (by removing VS from it.)
> >> And, dedicated one LAN to the virtual machines by removing everything but
> >> VS.
> >> (Read this in the help file regarding improving performance.)
> >
> > I wish we had that luxury, but we don't. Our server platform has 2 NICs;
> > one
> > is used for public traffic and the other is used for private (backups,
> > monitoring, maintenance, control) traffic. We don't have a 3rd NIC
> > available
> > to dedicate to the VM.